Chap. VI.--The
French and Indian War.I. The
Beginning of Hostilities and the Declaration of War, p. 87.
II. Unfortunate Campaigns of 1756 and 1757, p. 90.
III. Successful Prosecution and Termination of the War, p.
91.

EXTENDING FROM THE ACCESSION OF WILLIAM AND
MARY TO THE THRONE OF ENGLAND, IN 1689, TO THE PEACE OF PARIS, IN
1763.

CHAPTER I.

THE SEPARATE COLONIES.

I. COLONIES
ALREADY ESTABLISHED --
1. In the preceding Period we have seen the English
colonies in America struggling with the wilderness, without much
sympathy with, or knowledge of, each other: in this Period we
shall see common dangers bringing together those already
established, and anew colony1 (Georgia) called into
being. Some facts that peculiarly mark the growth of each colony
will be given in this chapter. After this chapter the English
possessions in what is now the United States will generally be
regarded as a unit, having a common history.2. New Hampshire2 remained
under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts till 1692, when, contrary
to the wishes of the

1 See p. 79.
2 See pp. 45,46.

QUESTIONS. -- 1.
What have we seen in the preceding Period? What shall we see in
this period? What will be given in this chapter? After this
chapter what of the English possessions in the present United
States? 2. What happened to New Hampshire in 1692?

(75)

76

PERIOD III. 1689-1763. INTERCOLONIAL
WARS.

people, New Hampshire again became a separate
province. After
seven years the two provinces came under one governor (Earl of
Bellamont); but a final separation took place in 1741.

The vexatious Masonian
controversy1 was terminated by yielding to the
claimants under Mason's grant the unoccupied portions of the
province.3. Massachusetts.2--William
and Mary, successors of James II. on the English throne, refused
to restore to Massachusetts her former charter,3 but
granted a new one in 1691, less liberal than the old.4
By the new charter Plymouth was united to Massachusetts,
whose jurisdiction also extended over Maine and Nova
Scotia;5 and the governor and other high officers,
formerly chosen by the people, were appointed
by the king. In May of the next year, Sir William Phipps, a
native of Maine, arrived from England as first governor under the
new charter, which he brought with him.4. About this time that strange delusion
known as the Salem witchcraft6 prevailed in
Massachusetts. Suspicions of witchcraft had previously
arisen in New England, and some persons had been executed for
practising
the craft. In 1692 the delusion broke out anew in consequence of
the strange actions of some children in the family of Mr. Parris,
a minister in Danvers, then a part of Salem. A physician
pronounced them bewitched, and an Indian servant of Mr. Parris was
flogged into an admission that she had bewitched them. Other
children and some adults were soon afflicted in the same way, and
several persons were accused of witchcraft. The accusations
attracted great attention, and were generally
believed.5. The awful mania spread. Cotton
Mather, an influential minister of Boston, and a firm believer in
witchcraft, encouraged the delusion; the magistrates countenanced
it; the newly-appointed governor hastened to summon a special
court to try the accused. So warped were the judgments of men,
that the strangest and most improbable stories were taken as
evidence. In a few months twenty persons had been executed,
more

1 See p. 46, ¶ 3.
2 See pp. 36-44.
3 See p. 44, ¶ 9.
4 See p. 39, ¶¶ 2, 3.
5 England did not come into undisputed
possession of Nova Scotia till 1713 (see p. 85, ¶ 4), nor of
the eastern part of Maine till 1755 (see p. 89, ¶ 9).
6 At this period, the actual existence of
witchcraft was taken for granted, and doubts respecting it were
deemed little less than heresy. The learned Baxter, who lived at
this time in England, pronounced the disbeliever in witchcraft an
"obdurate Sadducee;" Sir Matthew Hale, one of the brightest
ornaments of the English bench, repeatedly tried and condemned
those who were accused of witchcraft; and the celebrated
Blackstone, a half century later, declared that to deny the
existence of witchcraft was to deny Revelation.

QUESTIONS. --
Seven years afterwards? In 1741? -- How was the Masonian
controversy settled? 3. What happened to Massachusetts in 1691? By
the new charter how were the territory and jurisdiction of
Massachusetts extended? How were her privileges abridged? Who was
the first governor under the new charter? 4. About this time what
prevailed in Massachusetts? -- Give an account of the origin and
progress of the delusion. 5. What is said of Cotton Mather? The
magistrates? The governor? How many persons were
executed?

CHAPTER 1. THE SEPARATE COLONIES.

77

than fifty had been tortured or frightened into confessing
themselves witches, -- indeed, confession was their only safety,
-- and the jails were full of prisoners. No one was safe from
suspicion. At length the frenzy spent itself, people began to come
to their senses, the accused were liberated, and the terrible
drama closed.6. Rhode
Island1 and Connecticut2
continued to thrive under their charters until long after they
ceased to be dependencies of Great Britain, but without any change
so marked in their internal policy, or external relations, as to
need special mention in this chapter.7. New
York.3-- Leisler,4
supported by the democracy, but bitterly opposed by the
aristocracy, conducted the affairs of the province with great
prudence, until the arrival, in 1691, of Colonel Henry Sloughter
as governor. The destruction of Leisler was now resolved upon by
his enemies. He was tried on a charge of treason, and found
guilty. Governor Sloughter at first refused to sign the death
warrant; but his signature was obtained while he was drunk, and
when he recovered his senses Leisler was no more. Sloughter was
succeeded by the corrupt and covetous Benjamin Fletcher, and the
latter, in 1698, gave place to the Earl of Bellamont, whose
jurisdiction was also made to extend over Massachusetts and New
Hampshire. A little before this William Kidd,5 a
New York shipmaster, having been commissioned to cruise against
the pirates that were then infesting every sea, himself turned
pirate, and became the most notorious of them all. Bellamont
caused him to be seized and sent to England, where he was tried
and executed.8.In 1741,
during the administration of George Clarke, the supposed discovery
of a negro plot to burn the city of New York, and to rob
and murder the inhabitants, threw the people into great commotion.
Many negroes were arrested and imprisoned. On insufficient
evidence, more than thirty were burned at the stake or hanged, and
twice as many transported. When the alarm was over, and impartial
judgment had taken the place of excitement and fear, many persons
believed that the proceedings had been rash, and that there was no
evidence of any plot among the negroes.9. New
Jersey.6--
In 1702 the proprietors of both the Jerseys surrendered the
powers of government to the
crown, and the two provinces were united, and placed under the
same .governor with New York, but having a separate legislative
assembly. In 1738 New Jersey became entirely distinct from New
York, with Lewis Morris as governor.

1 See pp. 50,
51. 2 See pp. 46-50.
3 See pp. 52-57.
4 See p. 57, ¶ 4.
5 The name is wrongly given in the once
well-known ballad,--

"My name was Robert Kidd, as I sailed, as I
sailed."

6 See pp. 57, 58.

QUESTIONS. --
HOW many confessed themselves witches? At
length what happened? 8. What is said of Rhode Island and
Connecticut? 7. Give an account of the administration and fate of
Leisler. What can you tell of William Kidd? 8. Give an account of
the negro plot in New York. 9. What happened to the Jerseys in
1702? What in 1738? 7

78

PERIOD III. 1689-1763. INTERCOLONIAL
WARS.

10.
Pennsylvania.1--After William and Mary became
sovereigns of England, Penn's loyalty being suspected, the
government of his province was taken from him and given to the
governor of New York; but in 1694, the charges of disloyalty
having been disproved, he resumed his authority.11. Returning to Pennsylvania, he
found the people clamorous for greater political privileges, and
granted
them, in 1701, a more liberal charter,2 under
which the colony prospered till the American Revolution, when the
Pennsylvanians took the government into their own hands, and
purchased of Penn's heirs the proprietary
claims.312. Delaware4 was permitted,
in 1702, to secede from Pennsylvania, so far as to have a separate
legislative
assembly; but the same governors presided over both colonies until
the Revolution, when Delaware became an independent state.13. Maryland,5 in 1715, was
restored to the heir of Lord Baltimore, and remained a proprietary
province
until the Revolution, when the people assumed the government, and
confiscated the rights of the proprietor.14. Virginia6
enjoyed a steady growth during this period, and though among the
foremost in its turbulent scenes, there is nothing in her history
that needs a separate narrative here.15. North Carolina and South
Carolina.7 -- The infamous Sothel,
banished from the northern colony,8 appeared in South
Carolina, and assumed the government. The people, after enduring
his oppression about two years, drove him from the colony.
Philip Ludwell and John Archdale stand
preëminent among the early governors of the Carolinas. They
restored order to the province, and immigration was encouraged by
the liberal policy of the proprietors. Huguenots and Quakers here
found a home; and here too settled, in 1710, many Swiss and
Germans, the latter driven from their homes on the Rhine by
religious persecutions.
In 1729 the two Carolinas, which had hitherto
been considered as one province, were separated, and the
proprietors having ceded to the crown their rights of government
and seven eighths of the soil, North Carolina and South Carolina
became distinct royal provinces. See pp. 83-4, ¶¶
2, 5.

QUESTIONS. -- 10.
Why was Penn deprived of his government? To whom was it given?
When did Penn resume his authority? 11. What did he grant the
people of his province? What did the Pennsylvanians do at the time
of the Revolution? 12. When and to what extent did Delaware
separate from Pennsylvania? What of Delaware at the time of the
Revolution? 13. When was Maryland restored to the heir of
Baltimore? What of Maryland at the time of the Revolution? 14.
What is said of Virginia? 15. What is said of Sothel? Of Ludwelt
and Archdale? What of Huguenots and Quakers? Of Swiss and Germans?
-- When did the Carolinas become distinct royal
provinces?

CHAPTER 1. THE SEPARATE COLONIES.

79

II.
THE NEW
COLONY,
GEORGIA.1-- 1. To
James Oglethorpe, an Englishman, greatly distinguished for
his philanthropy, and eminent both as a soldier and as a civilian,
belongs the honor of founding in America a refuge for the poor of
his own country, and the persecuted of all nations. In 1732 George
II. granted to him and associates, "in trust for the poor," the
territory between the Savannah and the Altamaha.2 This
territory was named Georgia, from the king.2. The same year thirty-five families,
consisting of about one hundred and twenty-five persons,
embarked
from England under Oglethorpe. They landed in February,
1733, and began to build the town of Savannah, on a high bluff
near the mouth of the river of the same name. The Indians
received the strangers with great cordiality. Oglethorpe early
arranged a treaty with the assembled chiefs3 of the
Creeks,4 and made satisfactory bargains with them for
land.3. After ten years of
disinterested effort in behalf of Georgia, during which time he
visited England twice to bring over emigrants and soldiers,
Oglethorpe left his colony to return to it no more. He left it in
a state of tranquillity; but it had never flourished. A party of
Scotch Highlanders, who settled Darien (1736), and a
company of German Lutherans, formed thriving communities, but most
of the colonists were poor and inefficient; none, at first, were
permitted to gain a free title to the land they
cultivated.

1 See Map, p. 81.
2 This region had been included in the Carolina
patent, but the proprietors had surrendered their interests to the
crown. See p. 64, ¶ 1, and p. 78, ¶ 15.
3 Tomochichi, one of the chiefs, presented to
Oglethorpe a buffalo's skin, painted on the inside with the head
and feathers of an eagle. "The eagle," said he. "signifies
swiftness; and the buffalo, strength. The English are as swift as
a bird, and as strong as a beast; since, like the first, they fly
over the vast seas, and, like the second, nothing can withstand
them. The feathers of the eagle are soft, and signify love; the
buffalo's skin is warm, and signifies protection; therefore love
and protect our families."
4 See p. 22, note (IV., 3).

QUESTIONS. -- 1.
What is said of James Oglethorpe? What grant of land was made to
him and associates? When and by whom? Name of the grant? 2. Give
an account of the founding of Savannah. What is said of the
Indians? Of the treaty with them? 3. What more is said of
Oglethorpe? How did he leave his colony? What is said of some
Scotch Highlanders and German Lutherans? What of most of the
colonists?